Jen Davis

(b.1978; resides Hartford, CT)

This portfolio of self-portraits by Jen Davis continues her work in self-portraiture, but its tenor has eased from the tense scrutiny of the early pictures to a more comfortable and wider-ranging exploration. With a sensuality addressed as much with rich color as with silky slips, the expanded territory features the domestic and the erotic as we see Davis watering plants, hanging panties on a clothesline, or sharing a couch with a half-dressed companion. Indeed, where the earlier pictures concentrated on their subject's isolation, this body of work is increasingly aware of her movements and her interaction with her surroundings.

Jen Davis was born in Akron, Ohio. She received her BA in Photography from Columbia College Chicago (2002). She is the recipient of an Illinois Arts Council Artist Fellowship Award (2003), a Community Arts Assistance Program Grant through The Department of Cultural Affairs (2003), and two Albert P. Weisman Memorial Scholarships (2001 and 2002). Her recent exhibitions include Body Image at Schneider Gallery, Chicago; Soliloquies, John R. Grady Gallery of Photographic Art, Elgin, IL;3rd Annual Joyce Elaine Grant Photography Exhibition at Texas Woman’s University Fine Arts Gallery, Denton, TX; and Self-Centered at Creative Artist Network, Philadelphia, PA. Her photographs are in the collections of the Columbia College Chicago Photography Department and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.